Checking Our Mitzvos: The Way to Hashem's Glory

1“This is the thing that Hashem commanded you to do, and the glory of Hashem will appear to you.”¹ Moshe said these words on the eighth day of the Mishkan's inauguration. The commentators, among them the Ohr HaChaim, have asked what they were being commanded to do, since the verse never says what “the thing” is.²

2To explain this, let us first cite the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on the verse about the oil for the Menorah, kasis lamaor, “crushed for the light.”³ Even after a person has been privileged to occupy himself with the light of Torah and mitzvos, he must afterward be “crushed”: brokenhearted, and worried that he may not have been privileged to fulfill the Creator's will completely. However, Chazal said, “Crushed for the light, and not crushed for the menachos,” the meal offerings.⁴ This hints at the time when a person comes to bring a minchah, an offering, to the House of Hashem, that is, when he sets out to engage in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, through Torah and prayer. At that time he should not be “crushed” and brokenhearted. Rather, he must strengthen himself and know how important his service is, in the spirit of King Yehoshafat, of whom it says, “his heart was lifted up in the ways of Hashem.”⁵ Those are his holy words.

3We may explain it this way. We have explained elsewhere why the verse says “And it was on the eighth day,” using vayehi, a word of distress.⁶ Throughout all eight days Bnei Yisrael were in distress, because they were making a cheshbon hanefesh, a searching account of themselves, checking whether they were doing Hashem's mitzvos completely. That is why Moshe took the Mishkan apart and set it up again every day. He was checking whether the making itself had been done as the Creator wished, in case something was lacking in the way the Mishkan had been set up.

4This is what the verse means by “that Hashem commanded you to do.” The words “to do” refer to what Bnei Yisrael had seen in the service of the Mishkan on the eighth day. Moshe Rabbeinu was telling them: with every single mitzvah you do, you must see whether this is “the thing that Hashem commanded,” whether it is being done completely, as it should be. For this is the purpose of serving the Creator: [to see to it that one does every mitzvah of Hashem as He wills]. And this is what Moshe meant by “and the glory of Hashem will appear to you.” If you reach the level of examining yourselves in everything, after your Torah study, your mitzvos and your prayer, asking whether they were complete, you will become humble in spirit. Then there will be room for the Shechinah to rest among you, and the glory of Hashem will be revealed to you.

5This is truly the sickness of our generation: everyone thinks he understands better and knows everything. This attitude causes a great deal of chillul Hashem, desecration of Hashem's Name, and people are very far from the trait of examining themselves to make sure that all their deeds are as the Creator wishes. May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us reach this level, and may we also be privileged to live in love and brotherhood, and so to see the coming of the righteous Redeemer. Amen, may it be His will.